Typically, you don’t find many documentaries listed in the Top Movies of the Week section of the newspaper that seems to be reserved only for loud, exciting, and suspenseful movies with a cast of actors that keeps the audience focused on the screen not because of their good performance, but their good looks. Most moviegoers probably don’t want to watch a boring, educational film narrated by someone trying desperately (but alas, unsuccessfully) to sound like Morgan Freeman; especially since many of those moviegoers are teenagers who try to avoid anything that reminds them of school and learning. However, when a documentary happens to uncover a scandal or gives you an insider’s look behind something thought to be common knowledge, moviegoers of all ages of all ages will flock the theaters to discover these secrets for themselves. Generally these kinds of stories are only unraveled in magazines newspapers whose main selling point is the “deepest darkest secrets” behind the celebrities and organizations you thought you knew best. Movies that focus on these same stories have become more and more popular in the theaters today. The films have grown so common that I feel it is necessary to create an entirely new subcategory of documentaries for them. I call it (drum roll please), exposé documentaries. Exposé comes from the French word exposer which means “to expose”. The word exposé is used to describe a report that uncovers something scandalous. Although not all exposé films reveal a scandal, they all certainly inform the audience of secrets about the person or group addressed that had previously been hidden.


In a day and age where privacy has become nearly nonexistent, it’s no wonder people are eager to know every little detail concerning those around them. We have grown so used to being able to read someone’s life story through their facebook account and follow every aspect of their day to day lives through twitter that it seem only natural to want to know just as much about celebrities and famous companies as we do about our friends and family. Edward Snowden’s leak on the government’s internet and phone surveillance sparked an outrage among the general public. Vindictive individuals felt that their privacy, or what little remained of it, had been violated. They eagerly sought for revenge, and exposé documentaries proved to be the remedy they were looking for. The movies made them feel as if they were getting back at those above them by watching films that uncovered the secrets of others who had tried so hard to hide them. It seemed only fair to find out about someone else’s secrets now that the government knew some of theirs.
Exposé documentaries provide an outlet for the ever growing feeling of curiosity that characterizes us as humans. People have become so inquisitive about the secrets of the
world around them that they are willing to look anywhere to find answers, whether it be through the internet, the news, magazines, or movies. The documentary sections of popular movie providing services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, etc.) are flooded with documentary series with titles like Mystery Files, The Truth Behind, and The Real Story. Films like Katy Perry: Part of Me and Justin Beiber’s Believe have given us an insider’s view on a celebrity’s life. This makes us feel as if we have a more personal connection with them and answer many questions about what their life must be like behind the scenes. Even animal documentaries give us a look at events that we probably wouldn’t be able to witness on our own. Oftentimes, people are motivated to watch an exposé documentary when the topic of the movie has been discussed in the news and made popular among the general public. Blackfish is an example of such a movie. The film’s popularity is largely due to the incident in 2010 where a killer whale killed a SeaWorld trainer after one of the shows. The story was all over the news, papers, and internet. In the end, those who followed the story were left wondering what really happened that day and what could have provoked it.
Blackfish is a perfect example of an exposé documentary. It uncovers the secrets behind SeaWorld’s famous killer whales and the trainer fatalities they have been covering up. Blackfish follows the story of the whale that started it all: Tilikum. The film investigates his background, including the other trainer deaths and fatalities he was responsible for before the 2010 tragedy. The film questions the morality of the treatment of SeaWorld’s famed orca whales. They make a point in mentioning the various trainer accidents that were kept a secret even from some of the SeaWorld staff members. The film is rather pessimistic for my taste; it mainly focuses on all the things that SeaWorld has done wrong and how it has led to so many tragic trainer accidents. Although the film brings up some valid points and backs it up with good evidence, it seems very one sided. Many of the people interviewed are former SeaWorld employees who all probably left for the same reason: they had an issue with the treatment and display of SeaWorld’s Orcas. Most of the movie focuses on the treatment of only one of the many killer whales at SeaWorld. The movie puts the spotlight on one small part of a large controversy: should we, as humans, be able to control animals for entertainment as we do in zoos and animal parks around the world? I think if they would have opened it up a bit more and to other animals in SeaWorld or mentioned other animals that are mistreated in the name of entertainment, they would have made a more compelling point. I think that Blackfish had the potential to be a great movie about the dark reality behind the animals we use for entertainment (and I’m sure it may have warmed the icy, pessimistic hearts of all the cynics out there to know that yet another popular industry is not as perfect as it seems), but since it focused on one very specific aspect of a large, broad epidemic, it was nowhere near as effective as it could have been.